Startup builder LiteLabs enters Indonesia, unfazed by ecommerce giants

LiteLabs team

Some experts will tell you it’s too late to catch the fast-moving ecommerce train in Indonesia, as names like Lazada, MatahariMall, Tokopedia, and Bukulapak may soon have the mainstream consumer market sewn up. LiteLabs — a startup and innovation lab operating in Singapore, Jakarta, and Bangalore — would argue against that idea. The international company builder’s co-founder and CEO Dipendra Singh Jain is betting that the archipelago still has many greenfield opportunities in ecommerce.

“Some of the biggest names in India were successful models in the USA,” explains Dipendra. “However, the success for these startups lies in the fact that the ventures were able to plug the holes in the [existing] operating models […] This is lacking to a certain extent in Indonesian startups, where execution still seems to be tougher in spite of the creative ideas.”

Dipendra spent his formative years in Indonesia during the early 1990s, when the internet was just getting started, he says. Abroad, he worked for a few “top Fortune 100 companies,” with stints at Dell, HP, Accenture, and others. Now, he’s back in the archipelago with what he believes is the right know-how to “capture a piece of the Indonesian ecommerce pie.”

See: No country for ecommerce unicorns: why the word ‘bubble’ may not apply to Indonesia

Investment snipers

With a modest bankroll of US$5 million, Dipendra says LiteLabs is currently working on seven in-house startup concepts. In the investment game, US$5 million is a small sum. Dipendra knows that, which is why LiteLabs won’t be able to adopt the spray and pray investment thesis in Jakarta. It also won’t be able to launch firms that can compete with those of Rocket Internet right out of the gate. Instead, Dipendra and his crew will need to aim carefully, and act more like a sniper with only a couple bullets.

LiteLabs is working on multiple projects for Indonesia. But Dipendra discloses only two of them to Tech in Asia. The first is a product called SearchOn, which isn’t live yet. Dipendra says, “SearchOn will be a game changer for online ticket bookings, for movies and events, and more.” According to him, the firm will let users set up a night out on the town, and have nearly every aspect planned for them, before they step out of the house. Ideally, SearchOn users will be able to buy cinema passes for the exact seats they want to sit in. They’ll also be able to make dinner reservations, and arrange for scheduled transportation to and from the evening’s destinations.

Many will agree movie tickets seem like a good idea in the archipelago. But others may argue transport is a problem that’s already being solved by the likes of Uber, Go-Jek, and GrabTaxi. True skeptics are sure to suggest SearchOn will need to search on for a better product-market fit, as many startups have tried to do restaurant reservations in Indonesia, but alas saw questionable local demand, and ended up pivoting. Yet Dipendra remains confident in his team’s ability to execute.

He also says LiteLabs is hatching a startup called LiteRents, which he says will be a “real estate ecommerce” site, but did not elaborate further on the business model.

See: For foodie startup Qraved to succeed, it’s shedding its Rocket Internet ways

Skin in the game to ensure focus